ADDIE Model for BCBA Training: A Practical Walkthrough

If you can run an FBA and turn it into a treatment plan, you already know how to run ADDIE; it is the same five steps of analyze, design, develop, implement, and evaluate, just pointed at the adults you train instead of at the clients you serve.

That single bridge is the reason this framework sticks for BCBAs. You are not learning a new way of thinking. You are taking the clinical decision loop you already use and applying it to staff training, caregiver guidance, and supervision.

What ADDIE actually stands for (and why BCBAs already use it)#

ADDIE is a five-phase model for designing instruction. The letters stand for Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate. It came out of the instructional design world, not behavior analysis, but the structure should feel familiar the second you read it.

In her CEU, Ally Wharam, a BCBA with a master's in instructional design, makes the link explicit:

The steps of ADDIE are first analyze, design, develop, implement, and evaluate. What does this remind you of? The FBA and BIP process. Treatment planning. Any sort of programming that we're doing as behavior analysts, single case design, all of this. It's just the same application to staff training. From the talk — Ally Wharam

That mapping matters. Most ADDIE explainers online treat it like a generic project plan. For a BCBA, it is closer to your existing workflow than almost any other training model out there.

One quick correction up front. ADDIE looks like a straight line on slides, but it does not run that way in practice.

This looks linear in practice. This is not linear. It's more of kind of a circle with evaluate in the middle and it's very iterative. So you're analyzing, doing some initial evaluation, going back and making revisions and so on and so forth. It's very iterative. From the talk — Ally Wharam

Picture Evaluate sitting in the middle of a circle, with the other four phases looping around it. That is the real shape.

Analyze: is training even the right intervention?#

The first phase is the one most BCBA trainers skip. Before you build a single slide, you ask whether the gap you see is actually a training problem.

Ironically, the very first part of instructional design is determining whether or not we actually need to design instruction at all. From there, we need to really think about why it is important. So why is this performance important for the organization, for the trainee, for the clients? From the talk — Ally Wharam

If your RBTs are taking sloppy data, the fix may not be a data collection training. It may be that the data sheet is unclear, the schedule is too packed, or no one is giving feedback after the fact. A tool like the Performance Diagnostic Checklist (PDC-HS) helps you find the real root cause before you build anything.

Once you have ruled training in, Analyze covers four more questions:

• Why does this performance matter to the organization, the trainee, and the client?
• Where will the training happen, and where will the skill be used after?
• Who is the learner? Tech skills, past training, learning history, competing demands.
• What underlying skills does the learner need before they can perform the target skill?

This is the FBA step. You are gathering information so the design phase has something real to stand on.

Design: turning the goal into measurable learning objectives#

Design is where you turn the gap into a target. Two pieces of analysis sit inside this phase.

A topical analysis lists the concepts, facts, and rules the learner needs. For a session note training that is things like the difference between objective and subjective language, the required elements of a note, and common mistakes.

A task analysis breaks down the actual behavior. For the same training that is: identify the goals targeted, describe the interventions used, describe responses in observable and measurable language, avoid subjective labels, summarize next steps.

From there you write learning objectives the same way you write client goals. Not "the RBT will understand objective language." Something you can see and count. For example, "given a sample note with subjective language, the RBT will rewrite it using objective language with 100% of required elements present across three consecutive opportunities."

If you want a sequencing scaffold for the actual instruction, Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction pairs cleanly with BST. Gain attention, share the objective, prompt recall of past learning, present the content, give guidance, have the learner perform, give feedback, assess, then plan for transfer. That last step is just generalization with a different name.

Develop: build the slides, job aids, and worked examples last#

Develop is the phase most BCBAs jump to first. Slides, handouts, video clips, the rubric you will use to score performance after.

It feels productive because you can see the output. But if you start here, you end up with content that does not map to a goal.

The first, really the bulk of your time should be spent on these first two phases of really planning out, analyzing, creating the core of what you're going to talk about. The actual development is where sometimes people start, you know, you just jump in and you start dumping content onto slides. From the talk — Ally Wharam

Once Analyze and Design are locked, Develop becomes mechanical. You build the slide deck, the worked examples, the practice scenarios, the job aid checklist, and the rubric. Each piece points back to a specific learning objective. Nothing is in the deck because it was interesting.

Implement: run the session, watch for engagement#

Implement is the actual delivery. The 45-minute team meeting, the one-on-one caregiver session, the recorded async module.

Two things to plan for. First, the training context and the transfer context are almost never the same. You are training in a conference room and the skill gets used in a client's home or a school classroom. Build in that bridge with worked examples, job aids the learner can take with them, and a follow-up structure in supervision.

Second, watch what learners do during the session. Are they answering when you prompt recall? Are they working through the practice scenarios or staring at the slide? Implementation is where you collect the first round of data on whether the design is landing.

Evaluate: measuring the training, not just the trainees#

This is the phase BCBAs are best equipped for and most often shrink.

The point is not only "did the learner pass the post-test." The point is whether the training itself worked. If five RBTs come out of your session note training and four still write vague notes, the answer is probably not "those four did not try hard enough." The answer is something in your Analyze, Design, or Implement phase missed.

Evaluate has three layers worth measuring:

• Performance in the training context. Did they hit the rubric during practice?
• Performance in the transfer context. Are session notes in the EMR getting better over the next two weeks?
• Social validity. Did the learner find this useful, doable, and worth the time?

You feed all three back into the next iteration. That is the circle Ally describes with Evaluate in the middle.

Worked example: ADDIE applied to vague session notes#

Take the most common BCBA pain point. Session notes are vague, missing required elements, and full of subjective language.

Analyze. Performance gap is unclear, non-objective notes. Root cause is a skill and knowledge deficit because most staff were trained informally without follow-up. Stakes are billing, compliance, and supervision quality. Context is daily EMR entry after each session. Learners are mixed-experience RBTs with varying writing skills.

Design. Topical analysis covers objective versus subjective language and the required elements of a note. Task analysis breaks down the act of writing one note. Learning objectives are: identify and correct vague language in a sample note, write a session note using only observable and measurable language, and include all required elements without prompts.

Develop. Slide deck with examples and non-examples. A one-page job aid checklist of the required elements. Three practice scenarios at increasing difficulty. A rubric supervisors will use to score notes in the EMR over the next four weeks.

Implement. 45-minute training in a staff meeting. Open with a vague note and ask the room what actually happened. Move through BST: instruction, modeling, practice with the scenarios, feedback. Hand out the checklist and tell staff to use it for every note this week.

Evaluate. Score one note per RBT per week against the rubric. Compare to baseline. Survey staff at week four on whether the checklist is workable. Revise the training, the checklist, or the EMR template based on what the data shows.

That is one ADDIE cycle. The next one starts the moment the data comes back.

FAQ#

Is the ADDIE model evidence-based for ABA training? ADDIE itself is a generic framework rather than a single tested protocol, but the components inside it, like behavioral skills training, performance diagnostics, and measurement, all have a strong research base in ABA. Use ADDIE as the scaffold and fill it with the evidence-based pieces you already know.

How is ADDIE different from BST in ABA? BST is a teaching procedure: instruction, modeling, rehearsal, feedback. ADDIE is the larger design process that wraps around it. BST is mostly the Implement phase. ADDIE forces you to do the Analyze, Design, Develop, and Evaluate work that BST on its own does not require.

Do BCBAs really need a separate model when we already have FBA-to-treatment workflows? You do not need a different way of thinking, but a separate label is useful. Calling it ADDIE makes it easier to plan adult training, write it up, and hand it off. The cognitive lift is small because the steps mirror what you already do clinically.

Where to go next#

Use the worked example as a template the next time you build a staff or caregiver training. Pick one training you already deliver, map it onto ADDIE, and find the phase you skipped.

Ally walks through the full framework, the Gagne's Nine Events overlay, and a longer worked example in the recorded CEU. Watch it free on openceu.com.